For reporting purposes, teachers who responded with ‘Easy’ or ‘Very easy’ were considered to demonstrate confidence in teaching a particular topic.

Table TT2.7 shows the percentage of students in Papua New Guinea whose teacher expressed confidence in teaching literacy topics.

Overall, most students in both grade levels had teachers who were confident in teaching literacy topics. In both grade levels, the proportions of students with such teachers ranged from 64% to 95%.

Across both grade levels, areas where a lower proportion of students had teachers who expressed confidence were: phonemic awareness (grade three, 64%; grade five, 68%), letter and sound correspondence (grade three, 70%; grade five, 77%), quality of ideas (grade three, 71%; grade five, 78%), and organisation and structure (grade three, 72%; grade five, 81%).

Areas with the highest proportions of students having teachers who expressed confidence were spelling and punctuation (grade three, 94%; grade five, 95%); vocabulary (grade three, 89%; grade five, 94%); reading comprehension (grade three, 89%; grade five, 94%); grammar and syntax (grade three, 89%; grade five, 91%); and oral language (grade three, 86%; grade five, 95%).

Areas where more students had confident teachers appear to be rules-based subjects or those with more established teaching criteria, such as spelling, punctuation, grammar and vocabulary. Areas where fewer students had confident teachers appear to be in areas with more subjective, or more complex, teaching and assessment criteria, such as quality of ideas and organisation and structure in writing.

A regional scale focused on measuring teachers’ confidence in teaching literacy based on teachers’ responses was established. Higher scores on this scale indicate higher levels of confidence in teaching literacy. The literacy teaching confidence scores were analysed against teacher demographics (gender, age, teaching experience, and qualification level). The significant findings are listed below.

• Male teachers were significantly more confident in teaching literacy than female teachers.
• No significant difference in confidence teaching literacy was found based on the age, experience or qualifications of teachers.
• Overall, teachers in Papua New Guinea were more confident in teaching literacy compared to the average across the region.

Table TT2.9 shows the percentage of students whose teachers expressed confidence in teaching numeracy topics.

Most students in both grade levels had teachers who were confident in teaching numeracy topics. In both grade levels, the proportion of students with confident teachers in the numeracy topics ranged between 71% and 95%, a slightly higher and narrower range than for literacy topics.

Across both grade levels, the topics where a lower proportion of students had teachers who expressed confidence were ‘Geometry’ (grade three, 73%; grade five, 83%) and ‘Data and chance’ (grade three, 71%; grade five, 81%).

Topics with the highest proportions of students whose teachers expressed confidence were: ‘Place value’ (grade three, 91%; grade five, 95%), ‘Numbers and patterns’ (grade three, 92%; grade five, 95%), and ‘Operations’ (grade three, 92%; grade five, 94%).

A regional scale with nine items focused on measuring teachers’ confidence in teaching numeracy based on teachers’ responses was established. Higher scores on this scale indicate higher levels of confidence in teaching numeracy. As with literacy, the numeracy teaching confidence scores were compared to teachers’ demographic groups (gender, age, teaching experience, highest qualification).

• Male teachers were significantly more confident in teaching numeracy than female teachers.
• No significant difference in confidence teaching numeracy was found based on the age, experience or qualifications of teachers.
• Overall, teachers in Papua New Guinea were more confident in teaching numeracy compared to the average across the region.